FACING 3% RAISE, TEACHERS UPSET OVER UNION PAY RATES

Teachers union bosses say a 3 percent raise is a good deal given the state of the economy.

A lot of teachers disagree, especially the ones who aren't getting 3 percent.

Other teachers are upset that the recently negotiated agreement between the union and the School Board is less than the union wanted. It asked for 4 percent.

Perhaps most troubling for the Broward Teachers Union is that the salary schedule of its 18 top employees is circulating. The pay scale for the BTU chiefs is in stark contrast to what teachers earn.

Pat Santeramo, the union's chief honcho, makes $120,512 annually with an additional $18,077 in pension benefits and lots of other goodies. That's for the 2002-2003 school year, the last figures on file with the state.

George Segna, the union's top negotiator, receives $101,980 a year, $6,000 more for expenses and pension benefits equaling $15,297.

Seven others earn more than $84,000 a year plus expenses and pension.

John Ristow, the union's spokesman, gets $71,755 a year, plus $6,000 in expenses and $10,763 in pension benefits. Ristow's salary went up $16,193 from the past year, or 29 percent.

"My salary was adjusted to be in line with other salaries in the same field," Ristow says. "The staff salaries are commensurate with what others make in similar jobs."

One BTU secretary makes $41,776 annually. Another makes $40,170, according to documents from the BTU.

Both secretaries make more than a teacher with a dozen years of experience.

One problem is that a majority of the teachers are getting less than a 3 percent raise. That amount is the increase of the total payroll for teachers, not 3 percent for every teacher.

The new contract is being voted on by the 15,000 teachers in an election expected to be completed by Feb. 10. If the contract is accepted, teachers will get a big pay check on Feb. 27 because it will include their raise from the beginning of the school year in August to that date.

BTU officials are campaigning hard in every school to ratify the contract.

"This was and continues to be a very difficult time to bargain any contract," Ristow says. "The vast majority of the teachers know the bargaining was very hard and they will accept it."

He may be right. We won't know for sure until teachers' votes are counted.

Mayor Kay McGinn got a lifeline from lobbyists when she found herself in trouble with the state Elections Commission. The commission alleged McGinn filed a false campaign report by neglecting to put in the expense of using phone banks during her 2002 campaign.

Broward Mayor Ilene Lieberman, who lobbies for Pinnacle Housing which is building a project in Pompano Beach, arranged for Lonnie Maier to testify on the city commissioner's behalf. Maier is a telecommunications expert with her own consulting company, Maier & Associates. Maier says she did it as a favor to the mayor, who serves with her on the executive committee of VisionBROWARD, a group drafting a blueprint for the county's economic future.

The other witness for McGinn was Russ Klenet, whose $35,000-a-year city lobbying contract is voted on by the commission. Klenet testified for her as "an expert witness on the use of telecommunications in political campaigns," according to documents in the case.

"The witnesses were recommended by my attorney," McGinn says.

McGinn's attorney is Stuart Michelson, husband of Lieberman.

It's a small world.

After the hearing, an administrative judge recommended the charge be dismissed, after concluding that no monetary value can be placed on calls made at night from a phone bank, which would normally be idle at that time. The commission will consider the judge's recommendation later this year.

Man and wife

There was Ma and Pa Ferguson.

When Texas Gov. "Pa" Ferguson couldn't run again, his wife campaigned in his place in 1924 using the slogan "two governors for the price of one."

There was George and Lurleen Wallace.

When term limits in 1966 ended George Wallace's reign in the Alabama governor's mansion, his wife ran under the banner of "Let George do it."

Now there is Maureen and Mickey Berk.

City Commissioner Maureen Berk of Coral Springs can't run again because of term limits, so her husband is running. Although Mickey Berk has no commission experience, "he has been my confidant over the last 12 years" and knows something about the city, Maureen Berk wrote residents asking they support her husband.

She says they will be "partners in Coral Springs' future." Sounds like a campaign slogan to me.

Hmmmm ...

Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes, who was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in November to take over for suspended Miriam Oliphant, will decide after the March 9 primary if she will run for election. Snipes, a Democrat appointed by the Republican Bush, would be hard to beat if the presidential primary goes smoothly ... Newly elected state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff's possible opponents in the August primary re-election are giving her wide berth. Stan Smith, the business and political consultant who failed to qualify in the special election because of a clerical error, says he is not thinking of running. Oliver Parker, who is now running for re-election as mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, won't run either, although he came in second by only 12 votes. Parker has been particularly gracious to Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, after a combative campaign. He sent her flowers and is promising to work with her.